KTLA News: "Los Angeles Wa Ching gang members arrested in Chinatown extortion case" (1978)

investigator how does the protection racket work these are the first indictments of watching gang members in Los Angeles Chinatown history more arrests are expected there's been a climate of fear among businessmen in Chinatown for some time because of this type of extortion which is so widespread but mostly unreported the two arrested Ed the threat of gang violence if they were not given monthly payments of protection money the extortion scheme has been so successful because Merchants are afraid of reprisal they fear for themselves their family and their businesses if they report those involved in the protection threat well the watchings would walk into a business establishment within chinat town they would confront the owner of that business they would ask him if you know who we are the entire Chinese Community know who these people are and after that reply they will stay to the owner we want respect meaning they need money at which time they will quote a specific amount of money do they talk of a lot of money what kind of figures would be thrown about well it would depend on the particular type of business that they storting at the time I have known it to range from anywhere from 100 to 800 $100 a month as for as payment paid for protection according to investigator Al Williams two Chinese officers Carl U and Randol Quan should be given most credit for assembling the evidence for these indictments both live here in the community they were born in Chinatown and are respected by most people here officials are hoping the action today will cause other businessmen to come forward and sign complaints against those involved in the protection racket Stan Chambers Channel 5 news watch reporting from Chinatown and downtown Los Angeles for [Music] [Music] it it's very hard to say but rumors are that it's very prevalent the people just don't come forward and sign crime reports and prosecute the individuals involved in it because they do fear reprisals yes they fear reprisals to thems to their business or to their family what can businessmen in that Community do to protect themselves the best thing for them to do would be to step forward contact the LD in turn we will contact the District Attorney's Office file complaints against these individuals go to court testify against them this would eliminate the problem and you do have now some complaints that have been filed we have complaints that has been filed correct how many gang members would you guess are in Los Angeles Chinatown I would say of the active watching gang members I would estimate that to be in the vi of 200 where do they come from 99% of them are Chinese born they come to the United States due to the fact that they are Chinese born and later on in life have come to the United States they have very big problem speaking English which limits them to Chinatown area whereas they cannot go outside that jurisdiction and get a job so mainly because of these limitations they do hang around in Chinatown and have formed a gang called the watchings have you had any reports of actual reprisals in the past not in the Los Angeles area but in other chinatowns other Chinatown areas in other cities such as San Francisco New York uh Canada there have been reprisals upon the individuals can the Asian Task Force protect the businessmen in the communities to what extent are you referring in case of threatened reprisals correct we will do our best to protect these individuals all they would have to do is step forward for for